Several technologies are available to assist in gathering and presenting data for display through a user interface. One technology is ActiveX of the Microsoft Corporation which provides a robust set of tools to assist in issuing data requests and in processing the requests for presentation on a display. A limitation of ActiveX technology is that it has a large footprint, that is, its memory requirement is not practical for all applications (e.g., for some wireless platforms such as cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (“PDA”)). Another technology is Sun's Java engine but again, an interface that requires that engine has a large footprint and has a predetermined set of abilities as of the release date of the engine. There remains a need in the art for an open, extensible interface engine that has a small native footprint yet is capable of pulling in components, as needed, to suit a given application or platform. The present invention addresses these and other needs.